Is spreading happiness a duty of an Islamic government?

One should try to be cheerful. If you can make fellow members of your society happy with your smile, you need to do that. Joy is a necessity and must be offered to the people.

One important quality, and, certainly, one that is needed in a society is smiling: it's one of those necessities of human life.

A life without smile or happiness is a living hell. A heavenly life is a life with smile. Imam Ali (as) said: "The happiness of a devout person is in his/her face, and his/her sadness is in their heart." If you have sadness, hold it in your heart: this is how a devout Muslim behaves.

The smile and happiness of a devout Muslim is often visible on his/her face. One should try to be cheerful. If you can make fellow members of your society happy with your smile, you need to do that. Joy is a necessity and must be offered to the people. But it requires planning: you must, of course, plan ahead. When I say you "must," it doesn't mean that you haven't tried. A lot of useful steps have been taken, and I want to stress on this to continue.

Beware not to mix happiness with vulgarity, indecency, and licentiousness, and not to give happiness through these means. There are different ways to make people happy: do it the right way. Sometimes, a joke or subtleness makes the interlocutor happy. On the other hand, a lewd person may perform every trick upon his sleeve without being able to create very much happiness.

Being joyful and making the people gleeful is not equivalent to lewdness. There is an orator who is sometimes on TV and has made some good speeches -- I have listened to some -- and he never jokes. But he is so subtle, and he talks in a way that sometimes makes you smile unwittingly. This is how it should be. Subtle and remarkable humor is an art. It's a great art.

Help real comedians, train them, and help them to create humor. Humor is a serious matter discussed in humoristic language. There is real content, and meaning in it, but in the language of entertainment.

Speech at the meeting with the "Leasure and Sports" group of radio.
December 22, 1992.

The life environment of the Prophet, was also an environment of joy. He joked with others, organised competitions, and participated in competitions himself. The people who lived with him, for 10 years, had hearts more tender towards him, and their beliefs in him were stronger every day. When, during the conquest of Mecca, Abu Sofian came to him in secret with the help of Abbas--the Prophet's uncle--to ask for mercy, he saw in the morning, that while the Prophet was performing his ablutions, people had gathered around him to catch water dropping from his face and hands. He said, "I have seen Kasra (the Persian empire) and Caesar, these powerful and great leaders of the world, but have not seen such greatness in them."

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Happiness is important because happiness is life longevity.
Poetry like poems from great Rumi, digital art in computer graphics for example
computer war games with Hezbollah as the heroes with upbeat music, educational illustrated videos of Muhammad and Ali could bring learning and happiness in different languages of the world. Going for scenic rides with friends on a motorcycle.These are examples of some of the things that would make me happy.
There is an old saying; "It takes more muscles to frown than to smile". I wish Ayatollah Khamenei and Iran lots of happiness.

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